AfricaPress-Tanzania: CRDB Bank digital banking transformation has started to pay off after controlling 80 per cent of all transactions, cutting costs and pushes up profitability level.
The bank, largest lender in the land, emphasised for digital services some three years ago, and today sees the usage going up while increase efficiency at a cost effective manner.
The digital transactions shot up to 80 percent recently compared to 50 per cent before the transformation journey started over three years ago.
CRDB Group CEO and Managing Director, Abdulmajid Nsekela said last year performance was attributed to reforms targeted at revitalizing the business by creating new efficiencies and synergies to power growth.
“This is because we are taking our propositions seriously and we are working to elevate our customer experience by providing services efficiently and reliably,” said Mr Nsekela.
The Group said in a statement that their subsidiaries CRDB Burundi, and CRDB Insurance Broker contributed to growth, delivering impressive results riding on the transformation initiatives being implemented.
Some of the digital service includes a last year launched Jiwezeshe, a credit facility for micro-entrepreneurs ‘machinga’, aimed at providing affordable loans to empower them to boost their businesses.
“We believe that ‘Machingas’ play a significant role in facilitating trade and so by giving them access to loans, we would not only accelerate their growth, but also enhance their contributions to the country’s economy,” Mr Nsekela explained.
The bank said the digital transformation pushed up last year profitability by 87 per cent to 120.1bn/-.
Also, the Group introduced a digital lending solution named Boom Advance to support qualifying university and college students, especially for the period before their loans are disbursed by the Higher Education Students Loans Board.
To walk the talk, CRDB redefined Simbanking to allow more digital features including serving group accounts like Saccos, where groups of over 30 members to see transaction digitally via mobile phones.
“We have launched several innovative financing solutions for different sectors and customer segments aiming at addressing financial challenges that impede growth,” the Group CEO stated.
Group customer deposits grew by 11per cent to 5.2tri/-, mainly fuelled by strong growth from the retail segment supported by a wide distribution network and augmented by CRDB Wakala agents.
During the year, the Group recruited more than 9,000 CRDB Wakala agents–previously FahariHuduma–to bring the total number of agents to 14,761; in addition to 553 ATMs spread across the country.
